


Tidalwave

by mungosity (ishery)



Series: Postmodern sentimentality [2]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Gen, but it will be, come on bethesda let the sole catch up, fort hagen, i felt like we were rushed along there should've been a few more minutes downtime jesus, it's not even a thing yet, so very loosely
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-05-28 08:02:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6321496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishery/pseuds/mungosity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With everything resolved at Fort Hagen, and the steps ahead of her entirely in flux... everything Audrey had been bottling up since leaving the vault decided to overwhelm her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tidalwave

It had hit audrey the way most important things in her life had tended to-- at the worst possible moment.    
  
They had been rushing so quickly along Kellogg’s trail that she had hardly stopped to breathe, to grieve, to do  _ anything _ other than hunt the man who had taken her son with dogged determination. Since she had found him in that vault, Nick had been with her almost constantly- a ballast for someone lost in a storm. She could only assume that in that time he had leaned her mannerisms from the way he kept himself at an arm’s reach if necessary but remained silent as the elevator made it’s way back to the surface.    
  
Her shoulders shook with the force of the breath that she let out- something that she had been holding so fiercely since leaving the vault crumpling inside her chest. The whole of the situation sank in slowly with each slight shift of the elevator in it’s path upward.    
  
Dead.    
  
The man who had seen Shaun last, who  _ knew _ where he was and how to access the only place that was entirely inaccessible… and he lay in a heap in the basement of the building she was desperate to escape. His blood specked the corners of her coat, crimson reminders of the information she’d denied herself.    
  
Of the chances to find her son dwindling with each drop of blood on concrete.    
  
Shaun. The infant she remembered so vividly being taken from Lukas’ arms in the vault… he’d grown up. Grown up without her or his father and he was  _ ten _ and some dark part considered... _ what if he truly were better off with them?  _ What if she would have been a terrible mother? Kellogg’s words to the contrary sat on her heart like ashen earth, scalding flesh that was quickly becoming dull to the sensation.    
  
The doors opened to the roof  (a fact she would have to thank Nick for, once she realized he had hacked the computer),  and immediately she rushed forward into the night air. Breaths were taken greedily into near seizing lungs, each exhale shuddered, carried along the edges of a sob- a scream-  _ anything _ to release what was lingering in her chest. Elbows rested against the railing and her head dropped against her fists, eyes sliding shut to force back bitter tears.    
  
In the near silence of the night she could hear his processors clicking. The ambient noise that filled her moments since meeting him and… it was reassuring in a way. A reminder that she was hardly alone- that she had someone she could trust. She could hear his footsteps, near methodical  in closing the distance between them.    
  
“You know,” hesitant words, a tone that seeks to calm and assure, even as she knew the rest of the sentence before he could say it.  There was comfort in the offer, even if she knew he wouldn’t leave her completely alone even if she begged. Not in the middle of nowhere. “If you need a few minutes…”    
  
She turned her head to catch the way his expression bent, the doleful look painted clear on his expression as he gestured vaguely off to the side. “Nick… please stay.” 

 

The only response she received from him was a nod, and he came to rest his elbows against the railing as well, a mirroring pose that she found more comforting than anything else that could have been said in this moment. That he was content to wait until she was ready to move on.  He stood her silent companion as she finally lost the struggle to contain her grief, a shaking and long contained cry working its way from her throat to be drowned in the leather of her gloves.    
  
A hand lingered midair as he watched her shoulders quake from the force of her tears, before he finally moved to grasp her arm, “Hey… come here,” and before he could even process it, she had filled the space between them, hand wrapped tightly against a metal wrist even as the other finds purchase on the lapel of his coat.    
  
Her sobbing drowns out the sound of his own systems clicking in their usual manner, and he tried to think of anything other than the way her hands have moved to grab onto his coat like it’s a lifeline even as she soaked worn material through with tears he’s sure she had been holding in entirely too long. The hand at her back (  _ having moved there carefully, cautiously as Audrey’s hands had buried themselves in his trenchcoat _ ) brushed over shoulders, felt the way she was finally starting to surface again, breaths unsteady, but deeper than before. 

 

"It's not over," she finally heard him say, quietly clearing his throat and breaking their silence as if he wasn't entirely sure it was welcome but necessary regardless. "We'll figure out where to go from here." 

 

Audrey slowly released his coat, peeling away from him with a furtive glance toward the evening sky and a ungloved hand quickly wiping away the evidence of her grief. "I don’t even know where to begin…" she was lost. More lost than she'd been since coming out of the damn vault and finding the world shifted around her. True, she had found him. She had found Kellogg.  They had tracked him down and she had gotten him to admit more than he might have-- but where did that leave them?   
  
Without this mission- she was without a rudder. Everything is still raw- fresh and open wounds that she had barely taken any proper care for… but in time, maybe it wouldn’t be quite so painful. They hardly had the luxury of time to linger. So much time wasted when she hadn’t even realized it had passed.  How do you find a way into the place that is notorious for not being found?    
  
She’d finished putting herself back to rights again as her gaze finally drifted back to Nick, watching as yellow orbs squinted momentarily- gauging whether or not she was truly alright, she imagined. He evaluated her for a moment before his expression shifted, clearing as she could swear she saw the amusement flicker through his eyes, “Well that’s what you’ve got me for,  _ and _ I think I know just the person.” 

  
“Suppose I’m lucky to have you then,” she watches the way he grins at that, and has a hard time resisting the urge to mirror it herself.  
  
  
“ _People of the commonwealth do not interfere… ”_  
  
  
The response that had been lingering on Nick’s lips fell short as the airship made itself known on the sky- pausing their conversation, and leaving them to watch as the Brotherhood of Steel made its entrance… 

**Author's Note:**

> So this ended up as it's own thing because of the tone. I took someone's comment to heart when they said that my other fic for them was light and I'd hate to ruin the lovely fluff fest over there so here this is!
> 
> Please comment, kudos, send me messages on tumblr ( ludomungo ) if you liked or want to give critique. 
> 
> And again, thank you all for reading. <3


End file.
